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History of the Greek Language 1. Overview 2. Prehistory

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History of the Greek Language 1. Overview 2. Prehistory Prelims Greek Summer School, June 2013 Jo Willmott: History of the Greek Language History of the Greek Language 1. Overview ~14th-12th century BC Linear B/Mycenaean Greek adoption of Phoenecian alphabet - earliest early 8th century BC evidence for Greek dialects from inscriptions (~7th century BC Homer) 7th-5th century BC Archaic dialects 5th-4th century BC The Rise of Attic 3rd-1st century BC Koine and the Hellenistic age ~31 BC (defeat of Antony by Augustus)— Roman Empire ~330AD (founding of Constantinople) (1st century AD New Testament Greek) 4th century AD-15th century AD Byzantine Empire 1453 (sack of Constantinopole)-18th century Ottoman Empire ~19th century Rise of the Greek State (1880s Rise of Καθαρεύουσα) 1986 ‘Demotic’ adopted as official language 2. Prehistory • Greek a descendant of Proto-Indo-European, a sister branch to Latin • Proto-Greek the assumed ancestor of all Greek dialects – no direct evidence 1 of 4 Prelims Greek Summer School, June 2013 Jo Willmott: History of the Greek Language 3. First evidence - Linear B • Tablets found in late 19th century: Arthur Evans • Mycenaean palaces of the third millennium BC • e.g. Knossos, Mycenae, Pylos • Deciphered as Greek in 1952 by Ventris and Chadwick • Clay tablets – ‘accounts’ of the palaces • Survived by accident – fired in destruction • Pictographic and syllabic writing system – doesn’t capture phonology of Greek well wa-to (place-name in Western Crete), a-ko-ra-jo (ἀγορα-ιος = ‘of the collection’?), 60 male sheep, 60 female sheep, 49 male goats, 130 female goats (damaged), 17 pigs, 41 female pigs, 2 male oxen, 4 female oxen (pers. comm. JPT Killen) • PY Ta 722 (Horrocks, 2010, p. 2) Ta-ra-nu a-ja-me-no e-re-pa-te-jo a-to-ro-qo i-qo-qe thrâ:nus aia:ménos elephanteío:i anthró:kwo:i híkkwo:i- kwe stool (nom) inlaid (nom) of-ivory (dat) man (dat) horse (dat)- and po-ru-po-de-qe po-ni-ke-qe FOOTSTOOL 1 polupódei- kwe phoiní:kei kwe manyfoot, octopus (dat)- and griffin (dat) and ‘One footstool inlaid with a man and a horse and an octopus and a griffin in ivory’ 2 of 4 Prelims Greek Summer School, June 2013 Jo Willmott: History of the Greek Language 4. Alphabetic writing – dialects of Archaic Greece Nikandre inscription (Delos, c. 650 BC) Νικάνδρη μ᾽ ἀνέθεκεν ἑκηβόλοι ἰοχεαίρηι, Nikandre me dedicated to-Far-shooting Showerer-of-arrows ϙόρη Δεινοδίκηο το Ναξσίδ, ἔξσοξος ἀλήον daughter of-Deinodikes the Naxian exalted of-other-women Δεινομένεος δὲ κασιγνέτη Φhράξσο δ᾽ ἄλοχος <νυν> of-Deinomenes and sister of-Phraxos and wife now ϙ = koppa – alternative form of κ; = eta = h ; = standard capital letters: Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω 5. The evidence for Classical texts • Most from manuscripts – earliest 10th century, more from 14th century onwards • Some evidence from papyri preserved in Egypt 3 of 4 Prelims Greek Summer School, June 2013 Jo Willmott: History of the Greek Language 6. New Testament Greek Ἀνέβη δὲ καὶ Ἰωσὴφ ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ἐκ πόλεως Ναζαρὲτ εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν εἰς πόλιν Δαυεὶδ ἥτις καλεῖται Βηθλεέμ, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν ἐξ οἴκου καὶ πατριᾶς Δαυείδ, ἀπογράψασθαι σὺν Μαριὰμ τῇ ἐμνηστευμένῃ αὐτῷ, οὔσῃ ἐνκύῳ… Καὶ ποιμένες ἦσαν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τῇ αὐτῇ ἀγραυλοῦντες καὶ φυλάσσοντες φυλακὰς τῆς νυκτὸς ἐπὶ τὴν ποίμνην αὐτῶν. καὶ ἄγγελος Κυρίου ἐπέστη αὐτοῖς καὶ δόξα Κυρίου περιέλαμψεν αὐτούς, καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν· 7. Greek in the Roman Empire • Widely spoken in Eastern Empire • Many bilingual texts survive eg Res Gestae discovered in Turkey • Monumentum Ancyranum the best preserved: Latin + Greek • Latin only at Antioch, Greek version also found at Apollonia • Clear influence from Latin to Greek and vice versa 8. Modern Greek • Essentially two languages for centuries – spoken (demotic) and written (katharevousa) = Atticising • Only in 1982 was ‘demotic’ Greek allowed to be used as the official language • Many ancient features remain, pronunciation obscures the similarities (pers.comm. I Sitaridou). -Τί θέλεις, άνθρωπε; -Θέλω την ψήφο σου. -Γιατί; -Διότι δεν κρύβω την αλήθεια. 9. Romeyka • Villagers in modern-day Turkey speak a variety of Greek, known as Pontic or Romeyka • Ancient features like infinitive have survived here much longer Bibliography Geoffrey Horrocks, 2010 Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers (Wiley-Blackwell) B. Powell, 1991 Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet. (Cambridge,) Mnamon (ancient writing): http://lila.sns.it/mnamon/ Romeyka: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/against-all-odds-archaic-greek-in-a-modern-world/ Recent BBC programme on Linear B: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jz1cb 4 of 4 .
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